Charles I - Mark Kishlansky

The tragedy of Charles I dominates one of the most strange and painful periods in British history as the whole island tore itself apart over a deadly, entangled series of religious and political disputes. In Mark Kishlansky's brilliant account it is never in doubt that Charles created his own catastrophe, but he was nonetheless opposed by men with far fewer scruples and less consistency who for often quite contradictory reasons conspired to destroy him. This is a remarkable portrait of one of the most talented, thoughtful, loyal, moral, artistically alert and yet, somehow, disastrous of all this country's rulers.

Paperback : 144 pages

One of the excellent Penguin Monarch series, pocket sized and only 115 pages long, but packed with information on Britain’s most maligned monarch. The late Mark Kishlansky was a history professor at Harvard University and one of the world’s leading scholars on Stuart England. In this very readable volume he takes an unusually positive view of the unfortunate king.
Charles’s personal qualities are generally acknowledged. He was a loving and faithful husband to his wife, Henrietta Maria, and a doting father. He loved art and music as a true connoisseur. He dined and drank moderately; his court was decorous. He was a sincere Christian, daily at prayer and attentive to sermons; he died bravely, arguably as a martyr.
However Mark Kishlansky also aims to restore Charles’s reputation as a sovereign. Blackened by Parliamentary propaganda in the 1640s, and by most historians ever since, he has had an undeservedly bad press. Far from being obstinate, compromise was often Charles’s first instinct. The Professor ploughs his own furrow. The king’s attempt to arrest the 5 leading opposition MPs, in January 1642, failed because, “Unfortunately”, news of the plans leaked. From Charles’ viewpoint it was unfortunate but wasn’t the failure of this attempt to extend arbitrary royal power a blessing? The Professor doesn’t entirely succeed in rehabilitating this most cultivated of kings, but he does provide a rattling good read. Review: John G